Larry Kueck will work as one of Lamar's new football coaches as the offensive coordinator.
Photo taken Monday, March 5, 2012
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise

Larry Kueck will work as one of Lamar's new football coaches as the offensive coordinator.
Photo taken Monday, March 5, 2012
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise

Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Bill Bradley will work as one of Lamar's new football coaches as the defensive coordinator.
Photo taken Monday, March 5, 2012
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise

Bill Bradley will work as one of Lamar's new football coaches as the defensive coordinator.
Photo taken Monday, March 5, 2012
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise

Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Image 3 of 3

Lamar's new defensive coach learned from Wade Phillips

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Lamar's newest football coaches have plenty to do over the next two weeks.

First, they must figure out just what kind of players they have on hand.

Then, they must figure out what they want to teach those players in four weeks of spring practices that start March 19.

On defense, that might mean a switch to a 3-4 defensive front, said defensive coordinator Bill Bradley, who learned that scheme as an assistant under Port Neches-Groves graduate Wade Phillips with the Buffalo Bills in the late 1990s.

"I like the 3-4 because I learned it inside-out when I was working with Wade Phillips in Buffalo," Bradley said. "He kind of refined it pretty good, and you can see how the Texans did last year."

Bradley has spent most of his coaching career on the professional level. His college coaching experience consists of three seasons at Baylor, where he was a defensive coordinator from 2004 to 2006.

He brought to the Baylor defense some bit of respectability, but the Bears ranked last in the Big 12 in run defense before he left Baylor for a job with the San Diego Chargers after the 2006 season.

Lamar played out of a 4-3 and gave up a school-record 430 points last season while surrendering 5.3 yards per carry against Southland schools last season, so there is room for improvement.

Bradley, introduced as Lamar's defensive coordinator Monday, said he can is open to playing with various defensive fronts.

"It doesn't really matter," he said. "It's just whatever we want to do. The coverages hardly ever change. It's just the pressure part of it that comes from different places in the 3-4 versus the 4-3."

Bradley, who coached last season in the United Football League, said his preference for the 3-4 comes from the success it has had with Phillips at his coaching stops, now with the Houston Texans.

"We were taught by a good teacher," Bradley said. "It's been proven over the years, and you get more speed on the field."

The Lamar offense, which was among the least productive in the Southland Conference last season, will also take shape over time. Lamar hired Larry Kueck as an offensive coach, although his role is not clearly defined yet. Kueck identified himself as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, a job held by Todd Whitten for the last two seasons.

Head coach Ray Woodard said Kueck is an "offensive assistant," and he indicated more coaching staff changes could be on the way.

Kueck said he coaches based on the type of players on hand and used two NFL players he coached at Marshall to set examples.

"One year I had Ahmad Bradshaw at tailback and we ran a lot of two-back 'I,'" Kueck said. "When we had Byron Leftwich at quarterback, we ran a lot of four-wide receivers because he could run the game. It just depends what kind of kids you have."

Kueck, who has been an offensive coordinator at Marshall, Southern Methodist, Southern Mississippi and Mississippi, coached for the last four seasons as a high school assistant at Woodrow Wilson in Dallas.

Kueck is still learning about Lamar's players, he said. He viewed video of four or five games during a visit last month.

"I wanted to see where they were in Southland Conference competition," he said. "I was surprised. I think we can compete in this league right now, and that's the intention."